Stealing Heavenly Secrets

Carrying a bag of fruit weighing sixty or seventy jin, an ordinary person would soon feel their arms aching, but Li Zhi held it as lightly as a water cup.

Even climbing the mountain, he showed no sign of strain.

Arriving at the terrace, his backpack still sat there undisturbed, not carried off by the mountain's beasts.

It seemed this terrace was a beast's forbidden zone.

He quickly pulled out a new set of quick-dry clothes from the bag and put them on, finally escaping the state of a man airing his junk.

Then, he stowed the Luoyang Shovel into the backpack, keeping the Hundred Herbs Diagram and the cultivation scroll close to his body.

He also tossed out some useless items.

But when he was about to discard a roll of rubbing paper from the bag, he suddenly put it back in.

The reason he'd packed rubbing paper was to copy things like inscriptions and stone carvings that couldn't be taken away.

The spare phone in the bag had long since died, and the spare battery, having sat too long, was also out of juice.

As for the phone he carried, it had met its end alongside the bugs in the medicine field when he first climbed the Hundred Herbs Diagram.

After tidying up the backpack and luggage, Li Zhi stuffed the snakeskin bag of fruit inside.

After all, carrying it on his back was more convenient than lugging it by hand.

The hiking bag was spacious enough; after discarding some unnecessary items, it was nearly half empty.

Then, Li Zhi sat cross-legged on the terrace, waiting for nightfall.

He couldn't quite remember how long he'd been in this mystic realm.

But he knew it had been a good while.

Sitting there, he began to miss his little ones, Ji Zu and Xian'er, wondering if they could run now or clearly call out "Father."

The entrance was too close to Jade Emperor Peak, so Li Zhi didn't want to leave during the day.

He planned to slip out of this Great Sage Mystic Realm under cover of darkness.

After all, appearing out of thin air near Jade Emperor Peak in broad daylight would likely stir up unnecessary trouble.

Mount Tai outside was never short of tourists.

He sat there for a while, missing his wife and kids, ate a few fruits to stave off hunger, and then began practicing the Breathing Method.

He wanted to adjust his state to perfection, to give his family a huge surprise.

But he didn't know that surprise was doomed to fail.

At that very moment, in Earth's outer orbit, nine black divine dragons, each a hundred meters long, had been pulling a twenty-meter-long bronze giant coffin, floating silently there for several days.

The nine dragons seemed to have stepped out of myth, nearly identical to the dragons in legends—deer antlers, horse head, fish whiskers, snake body, tiger teeth, eagle claws.

They appeared utterly lifeless, their bodies gleaming with a metallic sheen, covered in fan-sized black scales, as if forged from Mysterious Iron, exuding a sense of fierce strength and grand majesty.

The bronze giant coffin was engraved with countless mysterious patterns, seemingly depicting creatures from the primordial chaos at the dawn of heaven and earth.

The Nine Dragons Coffin Transport floated silently in Earth's orbit, constantly emitting mysterious waves. After being detected by various space agencies on Earth, they remained unable to decipher the signals' meaning.

In this space of desolation and darkness, nine massive dragon corpses lay sprawled, the bronze coffin ancient and imposing, as if coexisting with the universe through the ages.

Meanwhile, At the foot of Mount Tai, as the morning sun bathed the land, Ye Fan and his group finally stepped out of the hotel where they'd stayed the night.

Green pines and verdant cypresses, ancient trees reaching the sky, waterfalls and springs—all adorned the majestic Mount Tai with extra beauty.

Thin mist swirled, clouds and rosy clouds filled the sky, adding a touch of mystery and the unknown to the morning mountain.

Climbing upward, they passed countless famous sites and cliffside inscriptions, leaving everyone in awe.

Near each ancient relic, Ye Fan would briefly break away from the group to chat with vendors or staff set up there.

This piqued the curiosity of Lin Jia, who had been following him all along.

By evening, Ye Fan and his group finally reached the summit of Mount Tai.

Standing on Jade Emperor Peak, overlooking the land, many let out Confucian sighs: "Ascend Mount Tai and the world grows small."

Only Lin Jia sidled up to Ye Fan and said, "Ye Fan, you were really strange today."

Lin Jia was a smart and beautiful girl, a bit snobbish but not bad at heart, and skilled at observation.

Along the way, she noticed Ye Fan showed no interest in Li Xiaoman, his ex-girlfriend who was chatting warmly with a foreign friend.

He didn't even bicker with his old rival Liu Yunzhi and the others.

He kept a low profile among his classmates, nothing like Wang Ziwen or Zhou Yi, who charmed everyone with ease.

This wasn't the Ye Fan she knew.

Ye Fan turned and smiled at Lin Jia. "Lin Jia, getting curious about a man isn't a good sign."

Lin Jia laughed too. "Li Xiaoman rarely comes back, and you didn't even put on a show. That's not the Ye Fan I know."

Ye Fan said, "Li Xiaoman and I ended long ago. Why should I disturb her life now?"

Lin Jia asked curiously, "Then can you tell me what you were asking about all along? You fell behind several times."

Ye Fan didn't want to say more; he still felt it was best not to let Lin Jia know about Li Zhi's matter.

Entrusted by Zhou Mei, after arriving at Mount Tai, Ye Fan had carefully observed the mountain's unusual nature, which gave him a very strange feeling.

It seemed as if here he could unravel the mysterious dreams that had troubled him for years.

Sunset spread across Jade Emperor Peak, with the wondrous Sea of Clouds before his eyes.

With such a magnificent view, it would be hard not to be captivated.

Ye Fan directly changed the subject and said, "Beauty Lin, quite a few of our classmates have already settled down. Don't you have any thoughts on that? With your standards, you should at least find a boyfriend stronger than me."

Lin Jia chuckled and said, "I didn't expect you to be so petty."

Just then, several small black dots suddenly appeared on the horizon, gradually growing larger as the distant Sea of Clouds churned, with faint sounds of wind and thunder echoing from the sky.

In an instant, nine colossal figures descended from the heavens like nine heavy mountain ranges.

Their immense presence, carrying boundless pressure, froze the expressions of everyone on Mount Tai, their faces filled with terror.

In moments, everyone clearly saw nine massive Dragon Corpses pulling an Ancient Bronze Coffin, pressing down toward Jade Emperor Peak.

Instantly, chaos erupted at the summit as tourists scrambled to find safe spots to take cover.

"Boom!"

The nine divine dragons, like mountain ranges, crashed heavily onto Jade Emperor Peak, directly splitting the summit into a series of Great Fissures, with faint glimmers of light seeping from the cracks.

On Jade Emperor Peak, earth and stone flew, dust filled the air, and panicked cries rose and fell, with screams shaking the heavens and earth—so much so that few noticed the light from the fissures.

Meanwhile, inside the Great Sage Mystic Realm, Li Zhi also felt a tremor shaking the mountains and ground.

In an instant, he thought of a possibility, tore open the barrier, and appeared outside.

From a distance, he saw Jade Emperor Peak in utter chaos, tourists rushing down the mountain in a frantic scramble.

Seeing this, Li Zhi did the opposite, immediately shouldering his pack and sprinting toward the summit.

On his way up, he even snatched a phone from a panicked tourist.

Then, running as he went, he called Zhou Mei.

After three rings, Zhou Mei answered.

"Hello."

"Mei'er, I'm fine, I'm okay. I'm on Jade Emperor Peak at Mount Tai now. Everything I need to tell you is locked in the safe in my study at home. Raise our child well and wait for me to come back."

"Honey, is that you? Where have you been?" Zhou Mei's voice on the other end broke into joyful tears.

But Li Zhi's call had already dropped.

Because he had reached Jade Emperor Peak, where something seemed to interfere with normal phone signal reception.

As the dust on the summit cleared, Li Zhi saw that only Ye Fan's group remained near the Ancient Bronze Coffin.

And they were calmly observing the coffin and the Great Fissures on the ground, even chatting leisurely.

While Ye Fan and the others circled the Bronze Coffin, Li Zhi finally reached the edge of a fissure.

Looking at the Five-Colored Altar beneath the coffin and the massive bronze casket above it, excitement spread across his face.

Just as he was examining the Five-Colored Altar, Ye Fan and Zhou Yi on the other side of the Bronze Coffin spoke simultaneously, "We should leave here quickly."

At that moment, a woman standing near the fissure seemed startled, slipping and falling straight into the crack.

Then, as if triggering a chain reaction, a mysterious force bound them all, and everyone tumbled into the Giant Pit below the fissure.

Now, Ye Fan finally saw Li Zhi on the opposite side and exclaimed in surprise, "Brother Li, how are you here?"

Li Zhi laughed and said, "I was trapped in a mystic realm. Just got out and ran into this big thing."

From Li Zhi's eyes, Ye Fan saw not panic or fear, but pure excitement, as if he had stumbled upon a tremendous opportunity.

Just as Ye Fan was about to ask for details, the Ancient Bronze Coffin began to shake.